From ‘tandoori rotis’ to ‘chapatis’, the issue turned to woman constable whom two of them liked; what followed is not clear

A fight involving three Punjab policemen, all friends, after a drinking session led to the murder of a brother of one of them and injuries to two on Monday night.

The police have registered a case of murder against two policemen, father of one of them and “four-five unidentified persons’’, but have been left puzzled with different accounts of the incident. SHO Gurdeep Singh said that Amritpal and Mohan Lal were arrested in the evening.

The dead man was identified as Manjinder Singh alias ‘Sonu’, in his mid-20s, a budding singer who lived in the police quarters in Phase 8. His father, Head Constable Gurdial Singh, is posted in the Mohali Police Lines while his brother, constable Harinderjit Singh ‘Happy’ (27), is posted at the Phase 8 police station.

Sonu was stabbed a single time in the chest while Happy and Amritpal, another constable and Happy’s friend, were injured. Interestingly, Amritpal is the prime accused in Sonu’s murder, and he is admitted to the Sector 16 hospital in Chandigarh with a fractured leg.

In a complaint to the police, Happy has accused Amritpal Singh of stabbing his brother. Amritpal is posted at the Punjab Police headquarters in Sector 9, Chandigarh. The other two accused are Amritpal’s father Rashpal Singh (60), a retired government teacher, and Happy’s another friend Head Constable Mohan Lal (40), posted in Kharar.

Police sources said Mohan Lal, Happy and Amritpal were having a drinking session in Mohan Lal’s room in Phase 8 on Monday night. They brought food from the nearby dhaba when Happy got angry that there were ‘tandoori rotis’, but no ‘chapatis’.

The three then went back to Pal Dhaba in Phase 9 around 11 pm in Mohan Lal’s car. There, they were told that ‘chapatis’ were finished. The police said the policemen were heavily drunk. From ‘chapatis’, the issue turned to a woman constable for whom Happy and Amritpal had a liking. The argument turned into a brawl, but what happened next is not clear.

Around 1 am on Tuesday, the police got information of an injured Sonu being carried by Happy on his shoulders near the Phase 8-9 light point. The police reached there and Sonu was rushed to the Fortis hospital where doctors declared him brought dead.

DSP Navreet Virk said it was not clear what exactly happened and the police had registered a case under sections 302, 307, 148 and 149 of the IPC at the Phase 8 police station. No weapons had been found.